Paper
K. Flanagan, B. Nelson, J. Archibald, and G. Thompson. The inaccuracy of
trace-driven simulation using incomplete multiprogramming trace data. In
IEEE International Workshop on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of
Computer and Telecommunication Systems, pages 37-43. IEEE, 1996.
Abstract
Trace-driven simulation is commonly used to predict the performance of
computer systems. However, existing tracing techniques produce traces
inadequate for some studies: they do not usually record operating system
references, and they produce relatively short traces. This paper explores
the impact of these trace distortions on the performance estimates of
uniprocessor memory hierarchies using multiprogramming workloads. We used
a hardware monitor to capture traces under a variety of workloads and
operating systems. Our monitor captures every reference and can record
arbitrarily long traces. We quantify memory hierarchy performance using
traces of the SPEC SDM1.1 benchmark suite executing on an i486 CPU. To
evaluate variations due to operating systems, we compare these results
under both Mach 3.0 and UNIX Sys V R4. We conclude that for current
uniprocessors, long but incomplete traces result in modest errors in
estimated performance, but for proposed architectures with large delays to
main memory, the errors can be significant.